ey. Then they talked together a long
time and no one else was allowed to enter her brother's room, save her
father. She also spoke of her sister Hedwig's hatred of the Americans.
It seems that Fraulein Liedermann and I have at least one experience in
common. The German captain to whom she was engaged was also killed in
the war. Hedwig was angry because her little German half-sisters were
willing to make friends with Major Hersey and me. But I must not take so
long to come to my point. I also made friends with Frau Liedermann.
Often I went to her house, although always I was afraid that the fact
would be reported. If I was found to be fraternizing with the Germans I
would have been forced to end my acquaintance with the Liedermanns, as
you know.

"I can't tell you near all the details, but the important fact I
discovered is this: Captain Liedermann, the colonel his father, and a
number of other German officers have for weeks been making a secret
effort to have the Kaiser spirited away from Holland. Their plan is to
conceal him in some spot where the Allies will be unable to discover
him. Then, when the resentment against him dies down the Kaiser will be
rescued and brought back to Germany. Captain Liedermann has been trying
for a long time to get out of Coblenz. But I cannot tell you anything
more than this bare outline of the German plan."

Breathless and shaking a little from fatigue and excitement, Nora
Jamison now paused.

"You mean to tell me that you have made this extraordinary discovery
during your occasional visits to the Liedermann home, when I who have
been billeted there for months have learned nothing?" Major Hersey
demanded, coloring in his habitual fashion, but this time partly from
admiration of the girl beside him and partly from annoyance with
himself.

"Yes, but our positions have been entirely different, Major Hersey,"
Nora explained. "Every precaution was taken to see that you found out
nothing. Indeed you were apparently welcomed into the Liedermann
household so that your presence there might be a blind. What I found out
was owing to my intimacy with the two little girls and later with Frau
Liedermann. I hope for her sake it may never be discovered just how much
she did confide to me. I sometimes think she almost wanted me to report
what I knew, she is so weary of war and intrigue and deception, and is
almost as much of a child as her two little girls. I think this is all I
have to tell at pres